mm PHONOLOGY 



A- LOUIS ELMQUISt 




Class. 
Book. 



GopghtN?- 






^H 



CJOFXRfGHT DEPOSIT. 



SWEDISH PHONOLOGY 



Br 



A. LOUIS ELMQUIST 

Northwestern University 



CHICAGO 

THE ENGBERG-HOLMBERG PUBLISHING CO. 

1915 







^\ 






Copyright, 1915, hy 
A. Louis Blmquibt 



6 

©CU 4 2000 3 



KP 30 1915 



PREFACE. 

In this little volume I have made no attempt to 
treat any part of the subject exhaustively, nor is 
the book intended primarily as a work of reference. 
My purpose has been merely to give as much as 
the student of Swedish ought to know about Swed- 
ish pronunciation. Particularly Swedish-Americans, 
who have comparatively little difficulty with the 
sounds themselves, can profit much by a systematic 
study of the subject. 

The book, then, is intended as a text-book to 
accompany and to supplement the study of the gram- 
mar. In my Swedish Grammar I have referred 
freely to the Phonology. As the pronunciation of 
a modern language is clearly of basic importance 
for any knowledge of the language, it is my hope 
that the Phonology will be in the hands of every 
student of Swedish grammar, and that it will be re- 
ferred to freely from the*very beginning. 

I have everywhere avoided treating the subject 
historically, my main object being to give only 
what would be of practical value to the student. 
I have touched only rarely, and in an elementary 
way, upon matters phonetic. Except for an account 
of the leading differences between the present and 
older stages of orthography, I have treated ortho- 
graphic matters very sparingly. A full treatment of 
Swedish orthography is given in Jules Mauritzson's 
"Svensk Rattskrivningslara" (Rock Island, 1908). 

A. LOUIS ELMOriST. 
Evanston, Illinois, 
August, 1914. 



CONTENTS. 

FACE 

THE ALPHABET 7 

STRESS / 

ACCENT (acute and grave) ... 10 

Compared with English, § 3. 

Accent, a combination of tone and stress, § 4. 

Nature of the acute accent, § 5. 

Nature of the grave accent, § 6. 

Summary, § 7. 

Compound words, § 8. 

Words not stressed on the first syllable, § 9. 

How to learn the grave accent, § 10. 

Rules for determining which words of more than one 
syllable have the acute accent, §11. 

Accent and sentence-stress, § 12. 

Uniformity of accent in Sweden, § 13. 
QUANTITY 21 

Quantity rules, § 14. 

Consonant-length, § 15. 

Quantity and sentence-stress, § 16. 

Orthographic indication of length of sound, § 17. 

Concerning orthography of m and n y § 18. 
VOWELS 28 

The individual vowels, §§ 19-27. 

Orthographic representation of the sound of a and &, 
§ 28. 

Relation of quality to quantity, § 29. 

Relation of quality to sentence-quantity, § 30. 

Hard and soft vowels, § 31. 

Vowel-modification, § 32. 

List of nouns modifying the vowel in the plural, § 33. 
DIPHTHONGS 37 



CONSONANTS 38 

Swedish consonants differing in sound from the cor- 
responding English consonants, § 36. 
Voiced and voiceless consonants, § 37. 
Assimilation, § 38. 

The individual consonants, §§ 39-58. 
Summaries relating to the consonants, § 59. 

UNIFORMITY OF PRONUNCIATION 57 

No rigid norm of pronunciation, § 60. 
A and o before r, § 61. 
E and a, § 62. 

R, § 63. 

Tj, § 64. 

Sj, % 65. 

L, § 66. 
NAMES OF THE LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET. . . . 61 
ORTHOGRAPHY (present form compared with older)... 61 






SWEDISH PHONOLOGY. 



THE ALPHABET. 

1. The Swedish alphabet is the same as the 
English alphabet, with the addition of the three 
vowel-characters d, a y and o (A, A, O) at the end. 
In dictionaries these letters will always be found 
after z y in the order named. 

Note. — i. The letter y is used only as a sign for a vowel; 
see § 24. 

2. W and q occur only in proper names; z and c (with 
the important exception named in § 40, 1, and note 1) occur 
only in words of foreign origin and in proper names. 
Examples: Walli'n, Almqvist, zink zinc, Berze'lius, ocea'n 
ocean, Celsius. 

3. For the names of the letters of the alphabet see § 67. 

STRESS. 

2. The first syllable has the main stress, both 
in simple and in compound words. Ex.: kvinna 
woman, tala to speak, gossarna the boys, troligare 
more likely, avstdnd distance, jarnvdgsolycka railway 
accident, genomresa to travel through, erfara to ex- 
perience. 



8 STRESS § 2 

Exceptions to this rule are numerous: 

(a) In the case of a rather large number of com- 
pounds formed from two (or more) words that orig- 
inally stood side by side in the sentence, the first 
of these in many instances being unstressed owing 
to the fact that it did not have the sentence-stress 
(see note 2, below), the main stress falls on the 
stressed syllable of the posterior component that 
originally had the sentence stress. Ex.: densam'ma 
the same, varan' dra each other, farval farewell, 
kanhan'da perhaps, iblan'd sometimes, ifra'n from, 
omkring' around, tillba 7ca back, bveral'lt everywhere, 
ihj'a!l to death, atmin' stone at least, emel'lan between , 
bredvi'd beside, naval very well, minsan'n upon my 
word, dsta'd off, bveren' s agreed, dny'o anew, omin'- 
tetgbi r a to frustrate, istari 'dsatta to repair, Karlskro'- 
na, Norrstrbm' , Sbdertal'je, Viistera's, Kristineham'n, 

Vising so' , Gbtebor'g. 

(b) Words of foreign origin are as a rule stressed 
on the same syllable as in the foreign language 
from which they have come; in a very large num- 
ber of instances, particularly in words borrowed 
from French or the Classical languages, this is some 
syllable other than the first. Ex.: fotografi photo- 
graph, armi army, labor ato' rium laboratory, muse' - 
tun museum, solda't soldier, exa'men examination, 
aku't acute, tea'ter theater, prono'vien pronoun, pia'- 
710 piano, elegan't elegant, famil'j family, april' April, 
litteratu'r literature, adres's address, mode'rn modern, 
telefo'n telephone, lati'n Eatin, Ame'rika, Berlin. 

(c) Words beginning with the originally foreign 
prefixes be-, ge- } and most of those beginning w 7 ith 



8 2 ' STRESS 9 

for-, stress the syllable immediately following. As 
a rule, for- is not stressed when it corresponds to 
German "ver-", but stressed when it corresponds 
to German "vor-". Ex.: berat'ta to relate, beskyd'd 
protection, geva'r weapon, forsb'ka to try, forhdl'- 
lande relation, forsik'tig careful. 

(d) Nouns with the originally foreign suffixes 
-inna, -essa,- and verbs ending in the originally for- 
eign -era, stress the first syllable of these endings; 
nouns with the suffix -eri stress the last syllable. 
Ex.: larari?i r ?ia (woman) teacher, pri?ises'sa prin- 
cess, stade'ra to study, telefone'ra to telephone, ba- 
geri' bakery. 

(e) Some adjectives of more than two syllables 
ending in -lig and a large number ending in -isk 
stress the syllable immediately preceding. Ex.: 
eg en' t lig real, or den' Hi g orderly, ojfen'tlig public, 
ticn'tlig hostile, mora'lisk moral, poli'tisk political, 
kanci 'disk Canadian. 

Note. —i. The position of the stress is in Swedish not 
marked except in words of foreign origin with stressed final 
e, and inflectional forms of such words; in this case the stress- 
mark is placed directly above the e. Ex.: arme army, plur. 
avmeer. Moreover, a stressed e is thus marked in some prop- 
er names; as, Linne, Tegner, Franzen. In some cases the 
stressed e is doubled in proper names; as, JVoreen, Andreen, 

In this book the stress, whenever not on the first syllable, 
is marked b} T a stress-mark placed after the long sound (cf. 
§ 15)- 

2. In Swedish as in English, many words in the sentence 
are rapidly passed over and left unstressed, particularly ar- 
ticles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary- 
verbs; also not infrequently other verbs, adjectives, adverbs, 
and nouns. See § 12. 



IO ACCENT § 3 

3. Concerning different degrees of the strength of the 
stress of syllables not having the main stress, see §§ 4-9. 

ACCENT. 

3. In the pronunciation of an English word of 
two syllables, let us say ' 'roses", the second sylla- 
ble, besides having much weaker stress, has either 
higher or lower tone than the first. Similarly in 
the case of a monosyllabic word, as "rose", the 
voice either rises or sinks during the pronunciation. 

Swedish words of one syllable are accented very 
much like such words in English. Also not a few 
words and forms of two or more syllables are ac- 
cented approximately as in English, but most words 
and forms of two or more syllables (not including 
words beginning with unstressed syllables) have in 
Swedish an accent very different from that of Eng- 
lish. The Swedish accent that resembles the Eng- 
lish, and which in Swedish belongs primarily to 
monosyllables, is called the acute accent; the other, 
which is emplo}^ed with most words of more than 
one syllable, is known as the grave accent. 

4. Accent is a combination of various phases of 
tone and stress. Swedish employs three different 
tones, which we shall designate as high (H), mid- 
dle (M), and low (L,). Swedish has four different 
degrees of strength of stress: strong, half-strong 
(or, weakened), w y eak, and weakest; these can ad- 
vantageously be designated by the figures 3, 2, 1, o, 
respectively. 

Note. — For the sake of convenience, when minute dis- 
tinctions are unnecessary, syllables with strong, i. e., the 



§ 5 ACCENT II 

main, stress are in this book called stressed syllables, while 
syllables with stress 2, I, and o are called unstressed syllables. 

5. NATURE OF THE ACUTE ACCENT. In the case 
of words of two syllables the acute accent combines 
high tone with stress 3 on the first syllable and 
low tone with stress o on the second s}41able; as, 
talet the speech, finger finger, bdttre better, sadan 
such, hander hands, nordisk northern. 

If the word has three syllables, both of the un- 
stressed (see § 4, note) syllables have low tone, 
but the third syllable has stress 1; as, koffertar 
trunks, understa (the) lowest, ha?ider?ia the hands. 

Note. — Also when there are more than three syllables, 
all the unstressed syllables have low tone. The syllable im- 
mediately following the stressed syllable here too has stress 
o; of the others, every second or every third syllable, count- 
ing from the main stress of the word, has stress 1. Thus, 
words with four syllables usually have the succession 3001, 
but frequently 3010; as, koffertarna the trunks. 

6. NATURE OF THE GRAVE ACCENT. Words of 
two syllables have on the first syllable stress 3, the 
stress decreasing only moderately (i. e., less than 
in words with the acute accent) and then increas- 
ing a little just before the end of the syllable; the 
first syllable begins with the middle tone, then 
sinks to the low tone, rising a little just before the 
end of the syllable; the second syllable combines 
high tone with stress 1. Cf. tala (grave) to speak, 
with talet (acute) the speech. Ex.: kvinna woman, 
gammal old, trogen faithful, aldrig never, honom 
him, bgon eyes. 

If there are three syllables, the first combines 
middle tone with stress 3, the stress decreasing on- 



12 ACCENT § 7 

ly moderately; the second combines low tone with 
stress o; the third, high tone with stress i. It 
will be observed that the accentual conditions of 
the first syllable of dissyllables are distributed over 
the first two syllables of trisyllables. Compare ta- 
lade (grave) spoke, with the last three syllables of 
beta! lade (acute) payed. Ex.: manniska human be- 
ing, larare teacher, skonare more beautiful, arbete 
work. 

Note. — If there are more than three syllables, all the un- 
stressed syllables have low tone, except the last, which has 
high tone. The stress-conditions are identical with those 
described in § 5, note. Ex.: konungama the kings. 

7. SUMMARY. Two syllables Three syllables 

Acute: H 3: L o H 3: L o: L 1 

Grave: ML 3: H 1 M 3: L o: H 1 

8. COMPOUND WORDS (including here, as else- 
where, words with such suffixes as -dom y ~het, -lek, 
-sam, -skap, -bar, -aktig, which are treated as pos- 
terior components of compound words). The accent 
of compounds is similar to that just described, ex- 
cept for the degree of stress of the unstressed syl- 
lables. Compound words with the grave accent have 
stress 2 on that syllable of the second component 
that has the strongest stress (for compounds with 
main stress on the second component, cf. § 9); com- 
pounds with the acute accent have stress 1 on such 
syllables, but sometimes this is reduced to stress o. 
Ex.: (Stress 2) skolhus school-house, handelsbod 
store, genomresa to travel through. (Stress 1) trad- 
gdrd orchard, Smaland. (Stress o) mtdda(g) din- 
ner, vid?ida(g) Monday, farbror uncle. 



§ 9 ACCENT 13 

Note. — In the matter of the relative stress of the un- 
stressed syllables (cf. § 5, note), stress 2 in compounds usually 
takes the place of stress 1 in simple words. Stress 2 may al- 
so rest on the syllable immediately following the main stress 
of the word, in which case the use of stress 1 on following 
syllables follows the rule given in § 5, note, but counting 
from the syllable with stress 2. Thus, dissyllabic compounds 
with the grave accent have the stress-succession 3 2; trisyl- 
lables have 320 or 3 o 2; compounds with four syllables 
have 3201,3020, or 3002. 

9. WORDS NOT STRESSED ON THE FIRST SYLLA- 
BLE. Beginning with the stressed syllable, the ac- 
cent of words not stressed en the first syllable is 
identical with that described in §§ 5 and 6. That 
is, words stressed on the last syllable have the acute 
accent, like monosyllables. Other words not stressed 
on the first syllable have either the acute or the 
grave accent; the acute accent, however, predomi- 
nates strongly (see § 11, a). 

All syllables preceding the main stress have low 
tone, whatever the accent of the remainder of the 
word is. If there is one syllable preceding, it has 
stress o; if there are two, the first has stress 1, 
and the second has stress o. Ex. : maski'n machine, 
fotoge'n kerosene. 

Note. — When there are three syllables preceding the main 
stress, the succession is usually 100, less often o 1 o; when 
there are four syllables, it is 1 o 1 o, less often 0100. Cf. 
§ 5, note. Ex.: litteratu'r literature, akademi' academy, 
micltiplice'ra to multiply, universite't university, individuel 7 
individual. 

10. HOW TO LEARN THE GRAVE ACCENT. The 
grave accent is more difficult to learn than anything 
else connected with the pronunciation of Swedish. 



14 ACCENT § 10 

A detailed description of it can do little good with- 
out a careful demonstration by a teacher. 

The pronunciation of words of three syllables 
should first be mastered (as talade). When this 
has been acquired, and the distribution of the tones 
is clearly understood, the student can learn the ac- 
cent of words of two syllables (as tala) with much 
less difficulty. It should be borne ir> mind that the 
first syllable of tala embraces the accentual features 
of the first two syllables of talade; the final syllables 
are alike. The student will be materially aided by 
first hearing the two first syllables of talade {tala-) 
without the final syllable, but as if this were to fol- 
low; then, similarly, the first syllable of tala (ta-) 
alone, which, finally, should be compared with the 
accent of monosyllables (as ta). It will also be 
found profitable to practise with words that are 
pronounced alike except for the accent, and are 
different in meaning. Such are: 
ACUTE ACCENT GRAVE ACCENT 

anden the duck anden the breath, the spirit 

axel shoulder axel axle, Axel 

(det) brister (it) breaks brister faults 
bur en the cage bur en carried 

bdren the berries bixren carry (imperative) 

giftet the poison gtftet the marriage 

haven the seas (/) haven (you) have 

heden the heath heden heathen 

re gel rule regel bolt 

(Jian) skanker (he) presents skixnker gifts 
slutet the end sluiet close 

(Jiari) strider (he) fights strider fights 



§ II ACCENT 15 

11. RULES FOR DETERMINING WHICH 
WORDS OF MORE THAN ONE 
SYLLABLE HAVE THE 
ACUTE ACCENT. 

(a) Most words stressed on some syllable other 
than the first have the acute accent. Ex.: tillba'ka 
back, tea'ter theater, pro?io r me7i pronoun, beta'la to 
pay (but tala to speak, has the grave), fbrsoka to 
try (but sbka to seek, has the grave), fbrhdl'lande 
relation, fbrJwp 'piling expectation, fbrsik'tig careful, 
stude'ra to study, egen'tlig real, poli'tisk political, 
Ame'rika. 

Also inflectional forms of such words have the 
acute accent, even when a syllable is added. Ex.: 
tedtern, tea'trar, tea'trarna f def. sing, and indef. 
and def. plur. of tea'ter; prono'minet, def. of pro- 
no' men; berat'tade, past tense of berdt'ta; forhal'lan- 
det, forked 'landen(a) , forms of for hat lande; for hop 'p- 
ningen, fbrhop ' piling ar (no) , forms of fbrhopp'ning; 
fbrsik' liga, fbrsik'tig are, fbrsik' tigast, #-form, comp., 
and superl. of fbrsik'tig ; stnde ' rade \ past of stude'ra, 
egcntliga, poli'tiska, a- form of egen'tlig, poli'tisk. 

When, in the process of inflection, one or more syl- 
lables are added to a word of more than one syllable 
stressed on the last syllable, the resulting form has 
the acute accent. Ex.: exklusi'va, a-form of exklusi'v 
exclusive; bekva!mare y bekvd'mast, comp. and superl. 
of bekvii'm comfortable; forties' ter y plur. of fbrlus't 
loss; bageri'er, plur. of bageri' bakery. 

Note. — 1. Nouns ending in -in'na and -es'sa do not have 
the acute accent (for examples see § 2, d). 



1 6 ACCENT § II, b 

2. Many compounds, and some simple words, have the 
grave accent, though stressed on some syllable other than 
the first. Ex.: kanhan'da perhaps, varan 'dra each other, 
istdn'dsdtta to repair, atmin 'stone at least, professor pro- 
fessor (but acute accent and stress-shift in the plur. profes- 
so'rer), Karlskro'na. 

(b) Most words of foreign origin have the acute 
accent, which resembles that of the languages from 
which the loan-words have come more than does 
the grave accent. Not a few of these, however, 
have either the acute or the grave accent, while 
some have the grave. Examples of loan-woids 
stressed on some syllable other than the first and 
having the acute accent have been given under (a); 
here follow examples of those stressed on the first 
syllable: genus gender, neger negro, kilo kilogram, 
pojke (usually acute) boy, a?igest anguish, kqffert 
trunk, Paulus, London. 

Note. — I. Here belong also words with the originally 
foreign suffix -isk; as, nordisk northern, grekisk Greek, 
jordisk earthly. 

2. Inflectional forms of most words of foreign origin also 
have the acute accent, even when a syllable is added. Ex.: 
kofferten, koffertar(na), from koffert; negem, negrer{?ia), 
from neger; nordiska, a-form of nordisk. 

Exceptions to this are, for example, nouns of foreign 
origin ending in -el, -en, -er with plural in -ar; as, bibel 
bible, biblar(na); froken young lady, frok?iar(?ia)\ feber 
fever, febrar(na). Similarly in all adjectives ending in -el, 
-er, which have the acute accent, when -a, -are, -ast are 
added; as, simpel simple, simpla, simplare, simp last; sdker 
sure, sakra, sakrare, sdkrast. See under (c) below. 

(c) Most words ending in -el, -en, -er have the 
acute accent. No distinction is in the following 
account made between native words and words of 



§ II, d s ACCENT 17 

foreign origin. (1) Almost all nouns with these 
endings have the acute accent, except that rather 
many ending in -el in the Second Declension have 
the grave; as, iiyckel key, himmel heaven. More- 
over, nouns ending in -er and indicating relation- 
ship have the grave accent (as moder mother, fader 
father, broder brother, syster sister, dotter daughter) . 
Examples of nouns with the acute accent: fdgel 
bird, vigsel marriage, aker field, socken parish, neger 
negro, muskel muscle, hag el hail, fbnster window, 
vatten water. .(2) All adjectives ending in -el, -er 
have the acute accent, but those ending in -en have 
the grave accent. Ex.: (Acute) simpel simple, 
adel noble, bitter bitter. (Grave) bppen open, liten 
small. (3) Most indeclinable words ending in -er have 
the acute accent. Ex.: under under, over over, eller 
or, sbder south, sbnder asunder, heller either. 

Note. — 1. Nouns with the endings given above that have 
the plural ending in -ar have the grave accent in this form, 
but plurals in -er have the acute accent. TofflGr, plur. of 
toffel slipper, has either the acute or the grave accent. 
Nouns that have the same form in the singular and plural have 
also the same accent in both. The two words broder brother, 
and fader father, which in the singular have the grave ac- 
cent, have the acute in the plural, broder, fader. 

2. Adjectives with the endings mentioned above which 
have the acute accent, have the grave accent in the a-form 
and in the comparative and superlative; as, simpla, simplare, 
simplast. But the t-iorm (simpelt) has the acute. Cf. b, 
note 2, end, above. 

(d) In the process of inflection, in addition to 
the instances noted above, the acute accent occurs 
as follows: (1) When, through the addition of a 
plural ending, a monosyllabic noun becomes dissyl- 



18 ACCENT § ii, d 

labic, the resulting form has the grave accent. In 
the Third Declension, however, all nouns that modi- 
fy or shorten the vowel in forming the plural (with 
the exception of saner, plur. of son son) have the 
acute accent; as, docker, plur. of bok book; hander, 
plur. of kand hand; getter, plur. of get goat. All but 
one of these, bonde, are monosyllabic; note also leda- 
mo't. Also a few other monosyllabic nouns (not of 
common occurrence) of this declension have the acute 
accent in the plural. Some may have either the acute 
or the grave accent, usually in different localities; as, 
viner, plur. of vin wine; saker, plur. of sak thing. 

(2) Comparatives ending in -re (-rre) have the 
acute accent, except fbrre former, which always has 
the grave, and nedre nether, undm.., lower, bvre upper, 
which have either the acute or the grave. Superla- 
tives ending in -erst have either the acute or the 
grave accent, both in the inflected and in the un- 
inflected form; as, bverst uppermost, y tiers t outermost. 

(3) The present singular indicative active ending 
in -er has the acute; as, kbper buys, darner judges, 

firmer finds. (4) The present singular indicative 
passive ending in -es usually has the acute, but 
sometimes the grave accent; as, kbpes is bought, 
domes is judged, fi?i?ies is found. (5) The addition 
of the post-positive definite article never changes 
the nature of the accent of the form to which it is 
added, whether it results in the addition of a sylla- 
ble or not. In the following examples the definite 
form has the acute accent because the indefinite 
form has the acute: bordet, borde?i, from bord table; 
biet, bina, from bi (plur. bin) bee; bibliote'ket, bibliote'- 



§ II, e ACCENT 19 

ken, from bibliote' k library; tea 'tern , tea'trarna, from 
tea'ter (plur. tea'trar) theater; kofferten, koffertarna, 
from koffert (plur. koffertar) trunk; fageln, iromfdgel 
bird; haglet, haglen, 'from hagel hail; mnskeln, mnsk- 
lerna, from mnskel (plur. ?7iicskler) muscle; boken, 
bockema, from bok (plur. bocker) book; stolen, from 
stol chair. 

Note. — Observe that, as a result of the principle staled in 
d, 5, monosyllabic nouns have the acute accent in the defi- 
nite singular, but in most cases (cf. d, 1) the grave accent 
in the indefinite and definite plural. Cf. also above, c, note 1. 

(e) Most compounds have the grave accent. Some, 
however, have the acute accent, or, more often, 
either the acute or the grave. But no compound 
may have the acute accent if the first component 
as an independent word would have the grave 
accent. Particularly frequent is the acute accent in 
the case of compounds formed from two (or more) 
words that originally stood side b}^ side in the 
sentence (as the following examples show, many 
such compounds are stressed on the first syllable, 
i. e., whenever the first component had the sentence- 
stress; cf. § 2, a); historically, nouns with the defi- 
nite article appended (cf. d, 5) are compounds of 
this kind, but they are not now felt as com- 
pounds. Examples of the acute accent in this type of 
compounds (some of these no longer felt as com- 
pounds): allting everything, varfor w 7 hy, vardera 
each, hittills up till now, sadan such, alltsa accord- 
ingly, hejsan hey, middag dinner, tretti thirty, trad- 
gtird orchard, vilken which, vari wherein, So(de)r- 
manland, Sverige, Smaland. Note particularly the 
compounds with s between the component parts; as, 



20 ACCENT § 12 

Vdnsman sheriff, krigshdr army, lifstid lifetime, 
namnsdag name-day, tors dag Thursday, Dais land y 
Karlsson, Pettersson. 

12. As already briefly mentioned (§ 2, note 2), 
many words in the sentence are left unstressed, 
that is, without stress 3 on any syllable. A suc- 
cession of unstressed words (and syllables) that 
thus stands between two syllables having stress 3, 
are pronounced with stress o or stress 1 in accord- 
ance with the rules given in § 5, note. In the 
case of words of more than one syllable, stress 1 
then usually falls on the syllable that has the main 
stress when the word is pronounced by itself. Ex.: 

0103 1 030010 o 3010 

professor Flom . Han bet a lade h 0110m. Han talar inte. 
3010 30 10 1 03 00 3 
Ester kokar mat oeh hennes gam le far hugger ved. 
However, if stress 1 would stand next to a syllable 
with stress 3, it is reduced to o, and another syl- 
lable is strengthened and receives the stress 1. Ex.: 

103 0103 1003 03 

major Palm, hutmajor Helin or major Helin, from major 

10 3 031003 103 

ho tell JVord, from hot ell; paragraf tre from paragraf 

0301 31 

jag vet inte, from inte. 

These unstressed words and syllables also lose 
their accentual characteristics and are pronounced 
in a monotone which in Stockholm is the high tone. 
W'.ien thus unstressed, the grave and the acute ac- 
cent cannot be distinguished from each other, but 



§ 13 ACCENT, QUANTITY 21 

one is reminded of the acute rather than of the 
grave accent. Compare, for instance, the accent of 
vi ell an ber'gen and over ber'gen; when stressed, 
vidian has the grave, over, the acute accent. 

13. UNIFORMITY OF ACCENT IN SWEDEN. The 
pronunciation of sounds is with the cultured pretty 
much the same throughout Sweden, or there is at 
least in the case of most differences an attempt to 
overcome the diverging sounds of the home-dialect. 
In the matter of accent there is, however, no such 
uniformity, nor is there any attempt to follow a 
standard. On the one hand, the nature of the 
acute and the grave accent varies much in different 
parts of the country; on the other hand, very many 
words and forms may have either the grave or the 
acute accent, usually varying according to the 
locality. The grave accent is on the whole favored 
more in the region about Lake Malaren, particularly 
in Stockholm; if a word may have either the acute 
or the grave accent, it usually has the grave accent 
in the region named. 

QUANTITY. 

14. All unstressed vowels are short; as, falla to 
fall, flickor girls, begyn'na to begin. ' "Unstressed", 
as here used, is limited to stress i and stress o. 
In syllables with stress 2 (compounds) the vowel 
may be long or short, just as in syllables with the 
main stress; as, mansken moon-light. 

A stressed vowel is: (a) long if final, or if fol- 
lowed by only one consonant; as, se to see, dag 



22 QUANTITY § 14 A 1 

day, tala (first vowel) to speak; (b) short if fol- 
lowed by more than one consonant (either a double 
consonant or a consonant-group; included are cases 
like ?ig> which, of course, represents only one 
sound); as, hast horse, tacka (ck = kk) to thank, 
tall pine, lang long. 

(A) Exceptions to (a). In the following in- 
stances the vowel is short though followed by only 
one consonant: 

(1) Vowels followed by j and x are always short. 
The letters, of course, represents two sounds. Ex.: 
nej no, lax salmon. 

(2) Vowels followed by final m and ?i are in some 
instances long, in others, short. See § 18. 

(3) In the word-endings -ik f el } -ip'el, -if el, a vow- 
el followed by a single consonant is short; as, ar- 
tik'el article, kapit'el chapter, titel title. So also in 
a number of individual words, most of which may 
also be pronounced with a long vowel; as, with a 
short vowel, frukost breakfast, april' April, Jupiter 
Jupiter, dbma (cf. § 18, a) to judge; varying be- 
tween a long and a short vowel are, for example: 
apel apple-tree, hade had, radisa radish, tadel cen- 
sure, tobak tobacco, vetenskap science, oken desert, 
honom (see § 22, 4) him, saga (with changing 
consonant-sound) to say, huvud head. 

(B) Exceptions to (b). In the following in- 
stances a vowel is long although followed by two 
consonants: 

(1) Vowels followed by the supradentals rd } rl y rn 
are in practically all cases long; a prominent excep- 



§ 14 B 2 QUANTITY 23 

tion is herrn the gentleman, in which the vowel is 
short. Vowels followed by rs are regularly short; 
excepted are instances where s has been added as an 
inflectional ending to a word ending in r preceded 
by a long vowel, in which case the vowel remains 
long in accordance with 2, a, below (as fars, gen. 
of far father; bars pres. sing. ind. pass, of bara to 
carry). Vowels followed by rt are usually short, 
but in some instances long (the latter not only in 
cases like stort, n. of stor, which follows 2, a, be- 
low). As supradentals, these five consonant-groups 
are in reality digraphs and represent single sounds. 
Ex.: (Vowel long) bam child, bord table, pixj'la 
pearl, art species. (Vowel short) hjarta heart, vers 
verse. 

(2) In the process of inflection and derivation, 
owing to the influence of word-forms or words where 
the vowel is followed by only one consonant, the 
vowel is usually long though the inflectional or de- 
rivatory process results in a consonant-group, unless 
the result is a double consonant. The following 
cases occur: (a) The addition of an ending (-de, -te, 
-d } -t, -s). Ex.: (Second Weak Conjugation) vag- 
de, vagd, vagt, from vaga to weigh; lakte, lakt, from 
laka to heal; but the vov/el is short in ledde, ledd, 
lett, from leda to lead; mbtte, mbtt, from mbta to 
meet. (Adjectives) brunt, from brun brown; but 
the vowel is short in vitt, from vit white. Note 
also, in comparison, cases like lag low, lagre, lagst, 
but stbrre (with a double consonant). (Genitives) 
sfo/s, from stol chair. (Passives) laks, from laka to 
heal; bars, from bar, p 1st tense of bara to carry. 



24 QUANTITY § 14 B 2 

(b) Syncope of an unstressed vowel, upon the 
addition of an inflectional ending. Ex. : dkrar, from 
dker field; hag let, haglen, from hagel hail; vapnet, 
vapnen, from vapen weapon; ddla, ddlare, adlast, 
from ddel noble, (c) Often in derivation, particu- 
larly when the second element begins with / or n. 
Ex.: ivra to exert one's self, ivrig eager, cf. iver 
eagerness; segla to sail, cf. segel sail; mogna to 
ripen, cf. moge?i ripe; gulna to turn yellow, cf. gul 
yellow; germa'nsk Germanic, cf. germa'n Teuton; 
forso'nlig reconcilable, cf. fdrso'?ia to conciliate; syn- 
lig visible, cf. synas to be seen, appear; liisning read- 
ing, cf . Idsa to read; blast blowing, cf . bldsa to blow; 
gladja to cheer, cf. glad glad, (d) Usually also in 
composition, even when the result is a double con- 
sonant. Ex.: uttaga to take out, cf. ut out; valbar 
eligible, cf. val election. 

Note. — 1. Exceptions to 2, above. When the genitive ( f. 
2, a) occurs in certain set phrases, the vowel is shortened; 
so also usually when it is the first component of a compound 
word, and, further, in a few additional instances. The rule 
that a vowel followed by more than one consonant is short 
can here assert itself, because the form of the same word 
with a long vowel is not present to the mind. Ex.: till skogs 
(but denna skogs dgare, with a long vowel), till havs (but ctt 
havs str cinder) \ till livs (but ett he It livs mo da), all t slags ; 
tids nog; hur dags; livs lid; slagsmdl; riksdag; regularly 
Guds, with the vowel short, but guds, with the vowel long. 
— The neuter form hogt, from hog high, has a short vowel 
irregularly; so also hogst and storst (from stor large). — In 
the s-form of the verb the vowel is in some instances 
shortened; as, syns, from synas to seem; tors from toras to 
dare. — As exceptions to 2, c, observe, e. g., tamja to tame, 
cf. tarn tame; grbnska to become green, cf. gron rrcen; 
vidga to widen, cf. vid wide. 



§ 15 QUANTITY 25 

2. Also in a few individual words, a vowel is long though 
followed by more than one consonant; as, aln yard, ell, moln 
cloud. In a few such, the vowel may be either long or short. 

15. CONSONANT-LENGTH. In -Swedish, conso- 
nants as well as vowels are either long or short. 
In stressed syllables, if the vowel is short, the eon- 
sonant immediately following is long; if the vow 7 el 
is long, the consonant immediately following is short. 

In Swedish, one sound in each word, and only 
one, is alw^s long. Either the vowel of the stressed 
syllable is long, or the consonant (if there is one) 
following immediately upon this vowel is long. All 
other sounds in the w 7 ord are short, both consonants 
and vowels. 

Note. — In compounds having stress 2 on one component, 
there is one long sound in each of two syllables (as mdnsken). 

16. QUANTITY AND SENTENCE-STRESS. In all 
words in a sentence that do not have the sentence- 
stress (see § 2, note 2, and § 12) the long sound 
is shortened, such words containing no long sound. 
Ex.: do bor't to die away, ^ hem' to go home, ja 
vis'st of course, om dti vil'l if you w T ant to, sd da'r 
that way. 

17- ORTHOGRAPHIC INDICATION OF LENGTH OF 
SOUND. Long vowels are not distinguished in writ- 
ing from short vowels; the quantity of vowels can 
be deduced from the consonants that follow them, 
according to the rules of § 14. 

Consonant-length is not indicated in the case of 
/, x (for examples see § 14 A 1), digraphs (as 
ng) t and trigraphs (as sch). In the case of other 
consonants, consonant length is indicated by a double 



26 QUANTITY § 17 

consonant: (a) finally (but see § 18 concerning 
m and n)\ as, hatt hat, tack {ck = kk) thanks, vass 
sharp, dorr door, dagg dew, &5dW bed, till to; 
(b) between vowels; as, sitta to sit, tacka (ck = kk) to 
thank, ^*m« to guess, stir ra to stare, vagga cradle, 
/adfafo to load, stilla quietly; (c) before /, n y r, but 
m is never doubled in this position, and n rarely 
(the cases of n are not many, as erinra to remem- 
ber, inre inner; but tun?ilar y plur. of tunnel tunnel); 
as, uggla owl, fackla {ck = kk) torch, bppna to open, 
vissna to wither, offret y def. sing, of offer victim, 
apple apple, vackra, #-form of vacker beautiful. 

Kxcept before /, n- y r y long consonants are not 
doubled when followed by another consonant; as, 
Jisk fish. When, however, in the process of inflec- 
tion, a long consonant written double in accordance 
with (a) or (b), above, comes to stand before a con- 
sonant in an inflectional ending {-de, -te y -d y -t, -s) t 
it remains doubled (but m and n remain doubled 
only before s) ; as, fdllde y fdlld y fallt y from fdlla to 
fell; vackte, vackt y from vdcka to awaken; tryggt y n. 
of trygg secure; tails , gen. of tall pine; stalls, pres. 
sing. pass, of stdlla to place; la??zms y gen. of lamm 
lamb; spanns y gen. of spann bucket; finns y pres. of 
fimias to be. But notice begy?i'te y begy?i't y from be- 
gy?i'?za to begin; kd?ide y kazid, kant from kdnna to 
know; sant y n. of sann true. 

Note. — 1. The rules of § 17 and § 18 take no account 
of the orthography of consonants at the end of the prior 
components of compounds, in the case of which the spelling 
remains as it was in the original word; as, kannbar, cf. kdn- 
na; manskap, cf. man; inom, cf. in. But notice til lata y from 
till and lata. 



§ .IS QUANTITY 27 

2. In a number of words, almost all of foreign origin, a 
double consonant is written in unstressed syllables between 
vowels, although the sound of the consonant is short; as, 
kommitie committee, possessi'v possessive, professo'rer pro- 
fessors, adde'ra to add, litteratu'r literature. 

18. CONCERNING ORTHOGRAPHY OF M AND N. 

(a) Eong m is written double between vowels 
(except in romare Roman; amen amen; dbma to 
judge; domen, domar, from dom sentence, and related 
words). Ex.: komvia to come, sommar summer. 
Otherwise m is never doubled (except finally in the 
three words damm dust, dam, lamm lamb, ramm 
ram). Ex.: om if, vem who, som who, fern five, 
dem them. Note cases like the following: hem home, 
but hemmet, hemmen; torn empty, but tomma; tele- 
gram 1 telegram, but telegram 'met \ telegram' me7i; drbm 
dream, but drbmmen, drbmmar; drbm (imperative), 
drbmde, drbmt, but drbmma to dream: kom (impera- 
tive and past sing.), but komma to come, past plur. 
kommo; somrar, plur. of sommar summer; himlar, 
plur. of himmel heaven; gamla, from gammal old. 

(b) Eong n is in a number of words not written 
double when final: han he, hon she, den it, min my, 
din your, sin his, etc., en one, man (plur. man, 
but def. ma7inen, mannen) man, van (but vannen, 

-vanner) friend, mun (but munnen, munnar) mouth, 
kan (but knnnd) can, men but, an still, igeri again, 
in in, allman (but allmdnna) common, an (a par- 
ticle), sjon, def. of sjb lake. In other words, final 
long n is doubled; as, skinn skin; hann, past sing, 
of hinna to reach; fa nn, past sing, of finna to find; 
sann true; hum thin. Between vowels, long n is 
regularly doubled. When followed by another con- 



2 8 VOWKLS § 19 

sonant, long n is doubled only before s of an inflec- 
tional ending; see examples in § 17. 

Note. — A single final m and n may of course also repre- 
sent short m and n; as, lam lame, dam lady, tarn tame, 
fin fine, van accustomed, man mane, vin wine. 

VOWELS. 

Note. — A careful distinction should be made between the 
duration of long and short vowels; long vowels should not 
be pronounced too short. Swedish long vowels do not have 
the vanish which is so characteristic of English. Special 
care should be taken to pronounce clearly unstressed a, which 
is exceedingly common in endings. There are no silent vow- 
els. Vowels do not change their sound before r (except as 
stated in § 61). 

a. 

19. LONG. (1) Long a has a sound midway be- 
tween that of the stressed vowel in "father" and 
"saw". Ex.: av of, hat hate, fara to travel, bra 
well. 

SHORT. (2) Short a has the sound of the first 
"a" in "aha", or of "a" in German "Mann". Ex.: 
halt hat, alia (both vowels; plur. of all all), arm 
arm, utan without, flicka girl. 

Note. — Observe that in cases like tala to speak, the two 
tf's are different in quality (as well as in quantity), while in 
tacka to thank, they are identical. 

e. 

20. LONG. (1) The sound of long e lies midway 
between that of "i" in "hid" (prolonged) and "a" 
in "hate" (without the vanish). It is very close 
to the vowel-sound of German "See". Ex.: ek oak, 



§ 20 VOWELS 29 

er your, het hot, veto, to know, redan already, se to 
see. 

(2) In the prefix er- f and in a few individual 
words, most of which may also have the sound de- 
scribed in (1), long e has the sound of long a (see 
§ 26, 1). Ex.: erhalla to receive, ersdtta to com- 
pensate, rued with, det that, proble'm problem, sy- 
stem system, poe'm poem, mode' m modern, chef chief, 
kuve'rt (vowel long only when the final / is not pro- 
nounced) envelope, Per. 

SHORT. (3) When short and stressed, and when 
it precedes the main stress, short e normally has 
the short sound corresponding to the long e of (1). 
Ex.: ett (n. of en one), hett (n. of het hot), vecka 
week, begripa to understand, geva'r weapon. 

(4) When short and stressed, frequently also w 7 hen 
unstressed (both before and after the main stress), 
it is pronounced like short a (see § 26, 2) in a 
large number of words, of which many are of for- 
eign origin. Ex.: den it, denna (n. detta) this, men 
but, sex six, berg mountain, nej no, eller (first e) 
or, Sver(i)ge (first e) Sweden, svensk Swedish, mest 
most, biljet't ticket, fien'tlig hostile, accen't accent, 
verb verb, England England, septem' ber (first two 
e's) September, adjektiv adjective, examen (first e) 
examination. 

(5) When unstressed, e has in endings the sound 
of "a" in "ago", or of "e" in German "Gabe". 
Ex.: gosse boy, taket the roof, saken the thing, vat- 
ten water, himmcl heaven, syster sister, fbdelse (both 
tf's) birth, hedern the honor, finries is found. 



30 'VOWELS § 21 

i. 

21. LONG, (i) Long i has the sound of "i" in 
"police" (no vanish). Ex.: i in, is ice v liv life, 
bita to bite, bi bee. 

SHORT. (2) Short i has the corresponding short 
sound, as in the first syllable of "event", "enough". 
Ex.: in in, irra to wander, min (n. mitt) my, sitta 
to sit, jzcni June. 

o. 

22. LONG. (1) Long o has normally a sound not 
very unlike that of "00" in "boot" (no vanish). 
Ex.: ord word, broder brother, hov hoof, bo to live. 

(2) In a few native words and in a large number 
of words of foreign origin, it has the sound of long 
a (see § 25, 1). Ex.: son son, sova to sleep, ho- 
ming king, lova to promise, ovan above, hov court, 
Jiloso'f philosopher, katalo'g catalog, logisk logical, 
telefo'n (also with the of 1, above) telephone. 

SHORT. (3) In a number of words, short o has 
the short sound corresponding to that of long o in 
(1). Ex.: Jwn she, o?tsdag Wednesday, ost cheese, 
orm snake, socke?i (or the o of 4) parish, bonde 
peasant, bodde, bott (forms of bo to live), dom judg- 
ment, blomma flower, pia'no piano, voka'l vowel, tele- 
fone'ra (or the of 4) to telephone, botani'k botany, 
konsona?i r t (second o) consonant, kilo kilogram, kro- 
kodi'l (both <?'s) crocodile, gavo (from giva to give). 

(4) In a very large number of words, short 
has the sound of short a (see § 25, 2). Ex.: ofta 
often, oss us, gott (n. of god good), doktor (both o's) 



§ 23 VOWELS 31 

doctor, Stockholm (both tf's), Norge Norway, honom 
(often pron. with long of 1 in first syllable; in 
some parts of Sweden, with long o of 2) , trottoa'r (both 
o's) side-walk, diftong' diphthong, afto?i evening. 

Note. — 1. In the plural-ending -or of the First Declen- 
sion, o may have either of the short sounds of o given above, 
or it may have a sound resembling that of "00" in "book". 
Ex.: flickor girls. 

2. Concerning ou see § 23, note 2. 

U. 

23. LONG. (1) The sound of long u may be pro- 
duced by placing the tongue in position for the "a" 
of English "ate", and rounding the lips so that 
the aperture is very small; the lips are usually drawn 
close to the teeth and not protruded. Ex.: ut out, 
hus house, njuta to enjoy, du you. 

vSHORT. (2) Short u may be produced by placing 
the tongue in position for a vowel lying between 
the sound of "e" in "met" and "a" in "mat", 
and rounding the lips without protrusion so that 
the aperture is moderately large. It is practically 
the same sound as that of the final vowel of "value" 
(omitting the y-sound). Ex.: ung young, kung 
king, bundo (from binda to bind), konung king, 
tin iver site' t university, huvud (concerning this, see 
§ 14 A 3) head. 

Note. — 1. In some words borrowed from French, u (both 
long and short) has the sound of y (see § 24); as, juste' r a 
to adjust, assure'ra to insure, obsku'r (pronounced either 
with the sound of long u or that of long y) obscure. 

2. In words borrowed from French, ou occurs and has 
the sound of u (both long and short); as, bonjou'r (pron. 
bongsju'r} frock-coat, joarna'l (pron. sj-) journal. 



32 VOWELS § 24 

3. Swedish u never begins with the sound of English 
consonantal 4< y", as in "use", "unite"; as, universite't uni- 
versity, musi'k music, muse'um museum. 

y- 

24. LONG. (1) Long y has a sound that resem- 
bles German "ii", as in "iiber", but lies closer to 
Swedish i. Ex.: yr dizzy, tyg cloth, flyga to fly, 
ny new. 

SHORT. (2) Short y has the short sound corre- 
sponding to long y. Ex.: yxa axe, syster sister, flyt- 
ta to move, tryckeri' printing-shop, syre'n lilac. 

Note. — In the word fyrti(o) forty, y has the sound of 
short 6 (see § 27, 2); so usually also in kyrka church. 

a. 

25. LONG. (1) Long a has approximately the 
sound of "o" in "rope" (no vanish). Ex.: a 
river, as ridge, bat boat, gas goose, sta to stand, 
bid blue. 

SHORT. (2) Short a has the sound of "o" in 
"obey", or of the first part of the diphthong in 
"boy". Ex.: dska thunder, lang long, manga many, 
statt (from sta to stand), blatt (n. of bid blue). 

a. 

26. LONG. (1) Long a has approximately the 
same sound as "ai" in "air", being the same as 
"a" in German "ahnlich". Ex.: ata to eat, rat 
straight, lasa to read, tr'd wood. 

SHORT. (2) Short d has the corresponding short 
sound. Ex.: dgg egg, rati right, kdnna to know, 
ydnin'na (woman) friend. 



§ 27 VOWELS 33 



27. LONG, (i) Long b has the sound of "6" 
in German "bbse". It may be produced by placing 
the tongue in position for Swedish e } and then round- 
ing (and slightly protruding) the lips so that the 
opening is moderately small, but larger than for 
Swedish y. Ex.: b island, bga eye, brbt (from bryta 
to break;, mbta to meet, do to die. 

Note. — Instead of this sound, the long sound correspond- 
ing to short 6 may be used in a few words, especially be- 
fore in.. », r. and the supradentals, and (less often) after r. 
Ex.: skon beautiful, gron green, for for, hora to hear, brod 
bread, sorter (plur. of son son). 

SHORT. (2) Short has the sound of German 
"6" in "Gotter". It may be produced by placing 
the tongue in position for Swedish a, and rounding 
the lips (with moderate protrusion) so that the open- 
ing is moderately large. Ex.: bppen open, mjblk 
milk, mbjlig possible, vibtt (past part, of mbta to 
meet), Vaxjb. 

28. ORTHOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION OF THE 
SOUND OF A AND A. (1) The sound of a, normal- 
ly designated by a, is written e in a large number 
of words when short, and in a few words when 
long; see £ 20, 2 and 4. 

(2) The sound of d, normally designated by a, 
is written o in a large number of words when short, 
and in main' words when long; see § 22, 2 and 4. 

29- RELATION OF QUALITY TO QUANTITY. The 
five vowels e, z, y } 5, o (that is, when does not 
represent the a-sound) have the same quality of 
sound whether long or short; as, Jut hot, n. licit, 



34 VOWELS § 30 

vit white, n. vitt; ny new, n. nytt; rat straight, n. 
r'dtt; bo to live, supine bott. 

The four vowels a, u\ a, b have a different quality 
of sound when long and when short, this even in 
the case of varying vowel-quantity in different forms 
of the same word; as, glad glad, n. glatt; Gud God, 
gen. Guds; bid blue, n. bldtt; sot sweet, n. sbtt. 

Note. — But when, in the process of derivation, a long 
stressed a> u, d } or o has become unstressed and short, it 
may usually retain the quality of the long vowel (shortened) 
when there is a strong feeling of association with the word 
having the long vowel; as, moble'ra to furnish, cf. mo be I 
piece of furniture; gj uteri 1 foundry, cf. gjuta to cast; bageri' 
bakery, cf. bagare baker; mdlarin'na (woman) painter, cf. 
mdlare painter. 

30. THE RELATION OF QUALITY TO SENTENCE- 
QUANTITY. When, owing to the absence of sentence- 
stress, long a, 11, a, are shortened, they may either 
change their quality, or they may retain the original 
quality (shortened) on account of the influence of 
the sound in the word when stressed; as, ja vis'st 
of course, hur ofta how often, gd hem! to go home, 
do bor't to die away. 

31. HARD AND SOFT VOWELS. The vowels are 
divided into: 

(1) Hard vowels: #, o y a, u. 

(2) Soft vowels: e, i, y, a, b. 

This distinction is of great importance in connec- 
tion with the pronunciation of g] k, sk, followed by 
a vowel; see also § 32. 

Note. — The terms "hard" and "soft" vowels are to be 
preferred here to "back" and "front" vowels; long u was 
formerly, but is not now, a back vowel. For the sake of 



§ 32 VOWELS 35 

uniformity I employ the same terms also in § 32, though 
the phraseology there and the historical point of view would 
rather suggest the use of the terms "front" and "back". 

32. VOWEL-MODIFICATION. In the older form of 
Swedish the hard vowels became soft vowels under 
certain conditions in various words and word-forms. 
This development has resulted in the presence in 
the language of: (a) inflectional forms of the same 
word, some with a hard and some with a soft vowel 
and (b) words having a hard vowel related to words 
having a soft vowel (not all words by far, however, 
that now contain a modified vowel can be connected 
with other words with which they would in this 
way be related) . Vowel-modification in English can 
be seen in cases like: goose, geese; mouse, mice; 
man, men; full, fill; fall (intrans.), fell (trans.). 

The vowels that in Swedish thus correspond 
through vowel-modification are: 



:} 



correspond to a 



corresponds to 

2c corresponds to y 
Ex.: hand hand, plur. hinder; gas goose, plur. gciss; 
son son, plur. soner; Icing long, compar. and super!. 
langre, lingst; ung young, comp. and superl. yngrc, 
yngst; valja to choose, past valde; tnng heavy, tyngd 
weight; hus house, hysa to house; full full, fylla to 
fill; lava to promise, lofte promise; get to go, gang- 
se current; fara to go, fard trip: varmlandsk per- 
taining to the province Varmland. 

33. In the preceding paragraph a number of ex- 
amples (beginning with tnng: tyngd) have been 



36 VOWELS § 33 

given, illustrating the connection of vowel-modifica- 
tion with derivation. There are also examples of the 
three inflectional categories that to a limited extent 
are subject to the principle of vowel-modification, 
namely: (a) the comparison of certain adjectives 
(for the list, see my "Swedish Grammar", Lesson 
XII), (b) the inflection of certain verbs of the 
Second Weak Conjugation (for a list of the most 
important of these, see "Swedish Grammar", Les- 
son XV; all are included in Appendix IV of the 
Grammar), and (c) the formation of the plural of 
certain nouns. Here follows a list of the nouns that 
modify the vowel in forming the plural; a few of 
these also have a plural-form without modified vowel 
(in most cases with a meaning and declension differ- 
ing from that of the plural with modified vowel). 
The six nouns bok, fot, rot, gas, lies, mas both mod- 
ify and shorten the vowel, plur. backer, f biter, 
rotter, gdss, loss, moss. The vowel-modification in 
lies, mus is irregular. 

2 DECLENSION 
dotter daughter 
moder mother 

3 DECLENSION 
and duck 

bok book 
bonde peasant 
brand firebrand 
fot (f otter or fot) foot 
hand hand 
land {lander or land) country 



§ 34 VOWELS, DIPHTHONGS 37 

ledamo't (stressed vowel) member 

natt night 

rand edge 

rot root 

son son 

spann {spanner or spannar) bucket 

spang (spanger, less often spangar) foot-bridge 

stad city 

stav (stdver or stavar) stave; bokstav (-stdver) letter 

strand shore 

stand (stdnder or stand} estate (of the realm) 

stang pole 

ta?id tooth 

tang tongs 

5 DECLENSION 

broder brother 

fader father 

gas goose 

lus (loss, irregular) louse 

man (man or man) man 

mus (moss, irregular) mouse 

DIPHTHONGS. 

34. Swedish has few words containing diph- 
thongs, which occur chiefly in words of foreign 
origin. Ex.: ej not, nej no, mig (usually pronounced 
maj) me, kejsare emperor, h'djd height, pojke boy, 
maj May, augus f ti August, automa'tisk automatic, 
tautology tautology, auktorite't authority, auktio'n 
auction, Paulus Paul, Euro' pa Europe, pseiidony' m 
pseudonym, enfemis'i7i euphemism, pnenma' tisk pneu- 
matic. 



38 DIPHTHONGS, CONSONANTS § 35 

35. The diphthong ej is pronounced aj. The pro- 
nunciation of the others, except an and en, needs 
no comment. 

Ati has the sound of short a + short u; as, pans 
pause, augtis'ti August. In some common words 
it has the sound of long a (long when stressed) 
and short u, distributed over two syllables; in this 
case it is of course not a diphthong; as, Paul. A 
number of words may have either of the two pro- 
nunciations mentioned. In some words of Greek 
origin, au usually has the sound of short a + v 
(then not a diphthong); as, azitoma'tisk automatic, 
tautologi tautology. 

Eu has the sound of short a + short u or short 
a + v (in the latter case not a diphthong); as, 
eufoni' euphony, pseudony'm pseudonym. In a few 
common words it usually has the sound of e (long 
when stressed) and short u, distributed over two 
syllables (then not a diphthong); as, Euro' pa Europe, 
neutrum (sometimes pron. with of) neuter, reuma- 
tis'm (this usually has the sound bj) rheumatism. 

CONSONANTS. 

36. SWEDISH CONSONANTS DIFFERING IN SOUND 
FROM CORRESPONDING ENGLISH CONSONANTS. 

(i) Swedish r is pronounced with the tip of the 
tongue vibrating (only moderately) against the rim 
of the palatal arch. It is not very unlike "r" in 
"three", but should be carefully distinguished from 
the ordinary American r-sound. For examples of 
words containing r and the other sounds discussed 



§ 3 6 CONSONANTS 39 

in this paragraph, see under the individual sounds 
below. 

(2) The Swedish dentals, d, t, /, n, s, differ in 
sound from the corresponding English consonants. 
The Swedish sounds are articulated farther toward 
the front of the mouth, and with the blade of the 
tongue. In the case of /, in addition, the middle 
of the tongue is made less hollow in Swedish. 
There is in Sweden some diversity in the manner 
of production of the dentals; in some places the dif- 
ference in sound between certain of the Swedish 
dentals and the corresponding English ones is min- 
imal. 

(3) When r is followed by a dental consonant, 
i. e., in the combinations rd, rt, rl, r?i } rs, it com- 
bines with the dentals into sounds called supra- 
dentals, which are articulated farther back than the 
English dentals, with the tip of the tongue. The 
English dentals are accordingly articulated between 
the Swedish dentals and the supradentals. The 
sound of the Swedish supradentals approaches that 
of our dentals when preceded by the American 
(cerebral) "r" (as in "heard", "heart", "barn", 
"verse"), but in the Swedish sounds no r is heard. 
In elevated speech, however, a weak r is sometimes 
heard; in the case of r/, also frequently in ordinary 
speech. 

(4) The Swedish sound that corresponds to our 
sh-sound should be carefully distinguished from this. 
It may be produced by combining the tongue- 
position of Swedish supradental 5 with that of a sound 
lying between the ch-sound of German "Nachte" 



40 CONSONANTS § 37 

and of "ich"; the sound is very often a little labi- 
alized. 

Note. — Concerning variation in the pronunciation of some 
of these sounds, see §§ 60-66. 

37- VOICED AND VOICELESS CONSONANTS. Some 
consonant-sounds (as "f", "s") are produced by 
forcing the breath through a much narrowed passage- 
way in the mouth, the narrowing for "f" and "s" 
being made at different places. Such sounds are 
called spirants. In the production of certain other 
consonants (as "k", "p", "t") there is a complete 
closure of the mouth-passage (at a different place 
for each of the three sounds mentioned) and for 
a moment, until the closure is released, the 
breath-current is stopped; such sounds are known 
as stops. 

But another spirant, ( V, can be produced with 
narrowing at the same place as for "f", and simi- 
larly another, "z", with the same narrowing as for 
"s"; so also three other stops, "g", "b", "d'\ can 
be produced with closure at the same place as for 
"k", "p", "t". In a very important respect these 
new sounds are, however, very different: before the 
breath-current reaches the mouth, it squeezes past 
the vocal chords in the throat, which have now 
been brought so close together that the breath in 
passing them causes them to vibrate, thus producing 
voice. These ("v", "z", "g", "b", "d") are 
called voiced sounds. On the other hand, "f", "s", 
"k", "p", "t", which are produced with the vo- 
cal chords so far apart that the breath passes by 
as if they were not there, are called voiceless. 



§ 3$ CONSONANTS 4 1 

In producing the voiceless stops "k", "p", "t", 
there is at the place of closure a feeling of strong 
tenseness, and a clearly audible "explosion" takes 
place as the closure is opened, and the breath- 
current released. In the case of the voiced stops, 
however, the strength of the breath-current is much 
weakened in forcing its way past the vocal chords, 
and there is no such feeling of tenseness at the 
place of closure as with the voiceless stops; when 
the breath-current is released, it is very weak, and 
the "explosion" is barely audible. 

38- ASSIMILATION. There is in Swedish a very 
strong tendency for the voiced consonants £-, b y d, v 
to become voiceless (k y p, t, f) when followed by 
a voiceless sound (usually /or s). That is, the 
open condition of the vocal chords is anticipated, 
and the preceding consonant in this respect tends 
to become like the following sound. Very often, 
however, sounds that can be said to be between g 
and k, b and p, etc., are used instead; the sounds 
in question have open vocal chords in common with 
voiceless consonants, but absence of tenseness in 
common with voiced consonants (the lack of tense- 
ness in this case caused by a breath-current that is 
weaker in its inception). In ordinary speech, 
k, p, t, f are heard in most cases of the kind un- 
der consideration; in more careful speech, however, 
the intermediate sound is employed in the case of 
many words, while even g y b } d, v are sometimes 
heard in elevated speech. But the voiced stop, 
when followed by 5 as an inflectional ending (geni- 
tive and passive) usually remains in all these forms 



42 CONSONANTS § 38 

of speech when a long vowel precedes; or, the vow- 
el is shortened (in many cases) and assimilation 
takes place. Ex.: observe'ra to observe, Ibsen, ab- 
solu't absolute, substantiv substantive, Jakobs Jacob's, 
snabbt (n. of snabb swift), vigsel marriage, bogse'ra 
to tow, avlagsen distant, slagsmal (vowel shortened) 
fight, halvvags (vowel short.) half-way, lagst (from 
lag low), hur dags (vowel short.) at what time, 
tre slags (vowel short.) three kinds of, till skogs 
(vowel short.) to the woods, byggs (from bygga to 
build), tryggt (from trygg secure), lagt (from lag 
low), vagi (from vaga to weigh), byggt (from byg- 
ga to build), ?iyttigt (from nyttig useful), ledse?i 
sorry, idka to carry on, tids (vowel short.) nog 
time enough, till freds (vowel short.) satisfied, styvt 
(from styv stiff), akti'vt (from akti'v active), behbv's 
(vowel short.; from beho'.vas to be necessary), havsyta 
(vowel short.) surface of the sea. 

Note. — Of the above examples some employ the voiceless 
sound much more freely than others; in some instances the 
voiceless sound is practically obligatory. There are, further, 
a few cases where the voiceless sound is always employed, but 
owing to the unphonetic orthography is nevertheless written 
with the sign for a voiced sound; as, lagt (from lagga to lay), 
sagt (from saga to say), bragte, bragt (from bring a to 
bring), Guds (vowel shortened; from Gud God), gods goods, 
hogt, hogst (vowel shortened; from hog high). 

In haft (vowel shortened; from hava to have) the voiceless 
sound is expressed in the orthography. The assimilation of 
d before t is regularly taken account of in writing; as, gott 
(from god. good), bebot't (from bebod'd inhabited). Similarly, 
in derivatives, the voiceless sound is written; as, skrift writ- 
ing, cf. skriva to write. 

In the past tense and past participle of the Second Weak 
Conjugation there is assimilation acting in the opposite di- 



§39 CONSONANTS 43 

rection, where d of the inflectional ending becomes / (writ- 
ten /) when preceded by a voiceless consonant; as, kopte, kopi 
(from kopa to buy); cf. the normal byggde, byggd (from byg~ 
ga to build). 

THE INDIVIDUAL CONSONANTS. 

Note. — In the following account, digraphs and trigraphs 
are treated under the first letter of the combinations. 



39- B is pronounced as in English. Ex.: bat 
boat, bjuda to offer, stab staff, snabb swift, gubbe 
old man, bomb (final b not silent) bomb, jubla to 
exult. 

Note. — On the assimilation of b before /and s, see§ 38. 

C. 

40. (1) Instead of kk, Swedish regularly writes 
ck; as, icke not, vackla to totter, tjockna to become 
thick, rock coat. 

Note. — 1. In one word, och and, double k is written ch; 
cf. ock, with c/c, meaning "also". 

2. Beyond the use mentioned, the letter c is employed 
only in words of foreign origin and in proper names; see 
below. 

(2) C has the sound of Swedish s (see § 36, 2) 
when followed by a soft vowel (only e y /, y occur 
in this case). Ex.: centra' I central, decern' ber De- 
cember, artificiel'l artificial, multiplicc ' ra to multiply, 
ocea'n ocean, cirka about, cykel cycle, Cederschibld, 
Ccla 7i'der y Celsius . 

(3) C has the sound of k when followed by an- 
other c (pronounced s; see § 36, 2). Ex.: accent 
accent, accepte'ra to accept, vacci'n vaccine. 



44 CONSONANTS § 41 

Note. —7 In some proper names, c followed by a hard vow- 
el or a consonant (other than c) occurs; it then also has 
the sound of k; as, Nican'der, Carl (generally spelled 
Karl), Creutz. 

(4) Ch (except in the word och and; see § 40, 1, 
note 1) is used only in loan-words and proper names; 
it has the sound of sj (see § 36, 4, and § 53, 3). 
Ex.: chokla'd chocolate, champinjo'n mushroom, chi- 
ka'71 disgrace, Chariot' ta. 

Note. — 1. In some proper names, ch has the sound of 
k; as, Choree 1 US) Ckrysan'der. 

2. In addition to the use of the letter c as presented 
above, it occurs in the combinations sc and sch; see under s. 

d. 

41. (1) Concerning the pronunciation of d, see 
§ 36, 2. Ex.: du you, bada to bathe, hundra 
hundred, aldrig never, hedra to honor, ladda to load, 
lid time, bragd feat, fbljd consequence, vild wild. 

Note. — On the assimilation of d before t and s, see § 38. 

(2) Concerning the pronunciation of rd y see § 36, 
3. Ex.: hard hard, vctrde worth, horde, librd (from 
libra to hear), orden'tlig orderly, bord table. 

(3) Initial d is silent when followed by j. Ex.: 
djur animal, djup deep, djavid devil, djarv bold. So 
also at the beginning of a posterior component it 
is of course silent; as, husdjur domestic animal. 

Note. — D is silent, or, in some instances, usually silent, 
in cases like: didst oldest, brads ka hurry, skridsko skate, 
handske glove, trddgdrd orchard, vandning turning. 

f. 

42. F is pronounced as in English. Ex.: fa to 
get, frd?z from, fjader feather, haft (from hava to 



§ 43 CONSONANTS 45 

have), trdffa to meet, fotogra'f photographer, nymf 
nymph, stoff stuff. 

Note. — In some proper names, f and fv have the sound 
of v; as, Lager lof, Silfverstolpe. 

43. (i) G has the sound of Swedish/ (see §45, i): 

(a) Before stressed soft vowels and before un- 
stressed soft vowels preceding the main stress. Ex.: 
giva to give, gdss . (from gas goose), gick y gingo 
(from gd to go), gbra to do, begyn'na to begin, 
egen'tlig real, igen' again, Gotebor'g Gothenburg, 
genus gender, gestal't figure, genera! I general, unge- 
fd'r about, forgo! ves in vain, Geijer. So also in the 
posterior components of compound words, though 
they do not have the main stress of the word; as, 
missgynna to disfavor. 

(b) Usually after / and r. Ex.: berg mountain, 
fdrg color, sorg sorrow, Sverge Sweden, Norge Nor- 
way, ialg tallow, svalg throat. 

Note. — In some words, g may have either this sound or 
that of 5, below; as, gitar'r guitar, logi'k logic, agen't agent, 
teologi' theology, legen'd legend, origina'l original, sigil'l 
(rarely the g of 5) seal, intelligent intelligent, marginal 
margin, kirtir'g (almost always the sound of 5) surgeon. 

(2) G has the sound of sj (see § 53, 3, and § 36, 
4) before the soft vowels e and i in a number of 
words of foreign origin. Ex.: geni' genius, passa- 
ge* rare passenger, fotoge'n kerosene, ingenib'r engi- 
neer, tragedi' tragedy, redige'ra to edit, genti'l (pron. 
sjangti'l) genteel. In a few words, in addition, a 
following e is silent (this is an exception to the 
note preceding § 19); as, sergcan't sergeant, mas- 



46 CONSONANTS § 43 

sa'ge massage, loge (theater) box, lodge, ekipa'ge 
equipage. 

(3) G usually has the sound of Swedish ng (see 
§ 49, 4) when followed by ?z, this gn being pro- 
nounced ngn. Ex.: vagn wagon, regno, to rain, 
lbg?i lie, inkog'nito incognito, signa'l signal, magne't 
magnet, Tegner. 

Note. — In the cases under (3), the preceding vowel is 
short, which is regular. But note the sound of g followed 
by the sound of n in mogna (from mogen ripe), mogna to 
ripen (cf. mogen ripe), egna (from egen own). Observe 
that in these cases the vowel is long. 

(4) G is silent in the initial combination £/, which 
occurs in very few words, and only before a hard 
vowel. Ex.: gjorde (from gbra to do), gjuta to 
cast. So also at the beginning of posterior com- 
ponents of compounds. 

Note. — 1. G is also silent in morgnar (from morgon 
morning). 

2. Initial g followed by n is not silent in Swedish; as, 
gnaga to gnaw. 

(5) Except when pronounced as above indicated, 
g has the sound of "g" in "go"; that is, (a) be- 
fore hard vowels and consonants (except /, and, 
usually, n) and when doubled, (b) before unstressed 
soft vowels that follow the main stress, (c) finally 
(except after / and r). Ex.: gav (from giva to give, 
which has the sound of Swedish 7), gas goose (but 
cf. plur. gdss t with /), gd to go (but cf. gick, 

gingo, with/), god good, glas glass, tigga to beg, 
segel sail, fattig poor, egen own, dag day. 

Note. — Concerning the assimilation of g before t and s y 
see § 38. 



§ 44 CONSONANTS 47 



44. (i) H is pronounced as in English. Ex.: 
han he, hits house. 

(2) Initial h is silent when followed by j\ Ex.: 
hjarta heart, hjalpa to help, hjul wheel, Hjalmare?i y 
Hjalmar. So also at the beginning of posterior com- 
ponents of compounds; as, ihja'l to death. 

J. 

45- (1) J has approximately the sound of Eng- 
lish "y" in "yes". Ex.: ja yes, nej no, bjuda to 
offer, njata to enjoy, mjuk soft, fjarde fourth, fa- 
mil'j family, kastanj chestnut, spjut spear, holjd 
(from holja to cover). 

Note. — After a vowel, j is always long, though never 
written double; see § 14 A 1. 

(2) In some words of foreign origin, j has the 
sound of sj (see § 53, 3, and § 36, 4). 'Ex.: jour- 
na'l journal, juste* ra to adjust, projek't project, jas- 
min jasmine. 

(3) Concerning the combinations dj, gj , hj, kj\ 
0, s Ji tf> s fy'i s t/> x i ( X J)> see ^ n der the first letter 
in each case. 



46. (1) K has the sound of Swedish tj (see § 54, 
3) before stressed soft vowels and before unstressed 
soft vowels preceding the main stress. Ex.: kyrka 
church, kar dear, kbpa to buy, kateke's catechism, 
kinefs chinaman, kirnrg surgeon, kemi 1 chemistry, 
kejsare emperor, Kbpenham'n Copenhagen, Kellgrcn. 
So also in posterior components of compound words, 



48 CONSONANTS § 47 

though they do not have the main stress of the 
word. 

(2) Otherwise k has the sound of English "k"; 
that is, (a) before hard vowels and consonants (ex- 
cept 7; see 3, below) and when doubled, (b) before 
unstressed e and i in final syllables, (c) when final. 
Ex.: ko cow, kimna to be able, sko shoe, Mar clear, 
kvi?ina woman, skriva to write, vikt weight, rike 
kingdom, tekni'k technics, rak straight. 

Note — I. Some words, almost exclusively of foreign origin, 
have the latter sound, where the sound of Swedish tj would 
be expected. Ex.: anarki' anarchy, banket' t banquet, buket't 
bouquet, kisse pussy, ko file, line, kor choir, fabriko'r 
manufacturer, ba?iki'r banker, stake't fence. A few may 
have either the sound of k or that of tj; as, kilogram' kilo- 
gram, arki'v archives, kax biscuit, arkitek't architect. 

2. Long k is written ck; cf. § 40, 1. 

3. Initial k followed by n is not silent in Swedish; as, kniv 
knife, kna knee. 

(3) Kj\ which occurs in very few words, and 
only before a hard vowel, has the sound of Swedish 
tj (see § 54, 3). Ex.: kjortel (or kjol) skirt. 

1. 

47. (1) On the pronunciation of / see § 36, 2. 
Ex.: lata to let, tala to speak, alia all, moln cloud, 
wtalm ore, glas glass, kallna to grow cold, dal val- 
ley, tall pine. 

(2) Concerning the pronunciation of r/, see § 36, 3. 
Ex.: parla pearl, farlig dangerous, Karlstad. Cf. 
3, note, below. 

(3) Initial / is silent when followed by j. Ex.: 
Ijnd sound, Ijtcs light, ljuga to lie, ljuv sweet, ljung 



§ 48 CONSONANTS 49 

heather, Ljangan, Ljusnan, Ljunggrcn. The same 
rule applies to posterior components of compound 
words. 

Note. — L is silent in vcirld world, and karl man. In the 
proper name Karl, I is not silent, but in this case r is very 
often silent; the / then becomes dental (or, to be more exact, 
dental / is in this word often substituted for supradental I; 
see § 36, 2 and 3). 

m. 

48. J/ has the sound of English m. Ex.: mjolk 
milk, mamma mamma, malm ore, dogm dogma, 
rymd space. 

Note. — In words of foreign origin, final m becomes voice- 
less when preceded by voiceless t or s; this is a sound strange 
to English and consists simply of a breath through the nose 
with the lips closed, and without vibration of the vocal 
chords. Ex.: rytm rhythm, sarkas'm sarcasm, fanatis'm 
fanaticism, schism schism, reumatis'm rheumatism. But 
when, in inflected forms of these words, a vowel follows, the 
normal (voiced) m is used; as, rytmen, schismer. So also 
when another word immediately following in the sentence 
begins with a vowel; as, reumatis'm i ryggen rheumatism 
in the back. 



49. (1) Concerning the pronunciation of n, see 
§ 36, 2. Ex.: natt night, annan other, njuta to 
enjoy, fnysa to sniff, sno snow, moln cloud, frysa 
to freeze, namn name, sann true, vin wine. 

Note. — 1. Concerning the orthographic designation of 
long n, see § 18, b. 

2. N is usually silent when preceded by m or ng and 
followed by d, t, or s. Ex.: lugnt (pron. lungt; from lugn 
calm), ndtnnde, niimnt (from namna to mention), jcimiit (from 
jamn even), hamnd revenge, ugnsdorr (pron. ungs-) oven 



50 CONSONANTS § 49 

door, vagnshjul (pron. vangs-) wagon wheel, namnsdag 
name-day, regnskur (pron. rengskur) shower. 

(2) Concerning the pronunciation of m, see 
§36, 3. Ex.: barn child, jam iron, skorna (def. 
plur. of sko shoe), bockema (def. plur. of &?£book), 

V cittern. 

(3) N is pronounced like the digraph ng (see 4, 
below): 

(a) When followed by k, as in English. Ex.: 
tdnka to think, dunkel dark, vinka to beckon, 
ba?iket't banquet, konkur 3 s (pron. also with the sound 
of n) bankruptc}^ konkre't (pron. also with ri) con- 
crete. 

(b) In many words of foreign origin, n has the 
sound of ng when followed by any consonant (ex- 
cept ri)\ en followed by a consonant is in this case 
pronounced ang. Ex.: annon's advertisement, pen- 
sion (pron. pangsjo'n) pension, elegan!t (pron. also 
with n) elegant, genti'l (pron. sjangti'l) genteel, pense 
pansy, intressan't (pron. also with 11) interesting, 
plansch (pron. also with ri) picture, konse'rt (pron. 
also with ri) concert, arrange 1 i r a (pron. arangsje'ra) 
to arrange. But not all such words have this sound; 
the sound of n is used, for example, in intelligent f s 
intelligence, konsekven's consistency. 

(4) Ng has the sound of "ng" in "sing", "sing- 
ing" (but not as in English "finger", which is 
"ngg"). Ex.: ingen no one, finger finger, sang 
song, konung king, engelsk English, talang' talent, 
salong 1 saloon (room). 

Note. — Ng rarely has other sounds: ngg (as singula 'r 
or sin'gular singular, funge K ra to officiate); nj (as ev.ange' Hum 



§ 50 CONSONANTS 5 1 

gospel, ungefa'r about); ngg or nj (as ta?ige?i't key, 
finge'ra to feign). 



50. P has the sound of English "p". Ex.: pa 
on, peppar pepper, pipa pipe, asp trembling poplar, 
lapp patch, piece, pjunk squeamishness, spela to 
play. 

Note. — i. Initial p followed by n is not silent in Swedish; 
as, pneuma'tisk pneumatic. 

2. Initial p followed by 5 is silent in psalm psalm, and 
psallare psalter, but it is pronounced in Psilan'der. In 
pseudony'm pseudonym, and psykologi' psychology, p may 
be pronounced, or it may be silent. 

3. Ph, with the sound of /", occurs in a few proper names; 
as, Josephson. Beyond this, ph does not occur; note Ji/osqfi' 
philosophy. 

q. 

51. Q has the sound of k; it occurs only in proper 
names, followed by v {it). Ex.: Ovarnstr'om, Alm- 
qvist. 

r. 

52. Concerning the pronunciation of Swedish r. 
see § 36, 1. Ex.: rod red, vrida to turn, skriva to 
write, tre three, fyra four, stirra to stare, narr 
fool, storm stcrm, bar bare, oster east, hundra 
hundred. 

Note. — 1. Concerning the frequently silent r in Karl, see 
§ 47, 3> note. 

2. Concerning silent r in connection with supradentals, 
see § 36, 3. 

3. Rh, with the sound of r, occurs in a few proper names; 
as, Arrhe'niuSy Rhodi'n. 



52 CONSONANTS § 53 

S. 

53. (i) Concerning the pronunciation of s, see 
§ 36, 2. Ex.: se to see, skriva to write, skvalpa 
to splash, svln pig, spjut spear, polsk Polish, poll's 
police, passa to suit, slcksack zigzag, Inrlkes inland. 

Note. — Swedish 5 never has the sound of "z", as very 
often in English. Sp and st are never pronounced "schp", 
"sent", as they are in German. 

(2) On the pronunciation of rs y see § 36, 3. 
Ex.: vers verse, sibrst (from stor large), mors (from 
mor mother), gossars (from gosse boy), sommars 
(from sommar summer), hbrs (from libra to hear). 

(3) Sj; concerning the, pronunciation of this, see 
§36, 4. Ex.: sjb lake,, sju seven, sjdlv myself, himself 
(etc.). 

(4) Sk has the sound of: 

(a) sj before stressed soft vowels (and unstressed 
soft vowels preceding the main stress, of which 
there are very few cases). Ex.: ske to happen, 
skbn beautiful, skllja to separate, skara to cut, 
skynda to hurry, ?naski'n machine. The same is 
true in posterior components of compound words. 

(b) s -\-k otherwise, i. e., (aa) before hard vowels 
and consonants (except j; see 5 below); (bb) before 
unstressed soft vowels in final syllables; (cc) when 
final. Ex.: sko shoe, skada to hurt, skriva to write, 
tysk German, handske glove, flasket the pork, slaskig 
sloppy, skar (from skara to cut, with sj-) . 

Note. — Sk has the sound of sj in a few words where, 
according to the rules given, the sound sk would be expected; 
as, manniska human being, marshal' k marshal. Kansk e 
(pron. with sj) perhaps, is a compound, 



§ 54 CONSONANTS 53 

On the other hand, s.c has in a few words the sound of 
sk instead of sj; as, konfiske'ra to confiscate, riske'7'a to 
risk, skiss sketch, skeptisk {sk or sj) skeptical, skelet't 
(rarely with sj) skeleton. 

(5) Sfy\ which occurs in a few words before a hard 
vowel, has the sound of sj. Ex.: skjorta shirt, 
skjuta to shoot. 

(6) Stj has the sound of sj. Ex.: stjarna star, 
stjdla to steal. 

(7) Sch has the sound of sj. Ex.: schal shawl, 
schema schedule, scharla''kan scarlet, schaMong' couch, 
planseh picture, broschy'r pamphlet, manschet't cuff, 
galoscli rubber, musta sell mustache, marsch march, 
schism schism. 

(8) Sc has the sound of: (a) s (as seen scene); 
(b) sj (as kresce?i'do crescendo); (c) s or sj (as 
rekognosce ra to reconnoitre, konvalesceii t convalescent, 
reminiscent s reminiscence, discip'el disciple, discipli'n 
discipline. 

(9) Si, ssi have the sound of sj. Ex.: division 
division, pensio'n pension, mission mission, assiet't 
(pron. with sj or si) small plate. Note that Asien 
is pronounced with si. 

t. 

54. (1) On the pronunciation of t t see § 36, 2. 
Ex.: Ho ten, std to stand, hatt hat, hata to hate, 
tea'ter theater, Ate'n Athens, tsar czar. 

Note. — 1. In a few words, t may be silent; as, kuve'rt en- 
velope, konse'rt concert, desse'rt dessert. 

2. T/i } occurring in proper nouns, has the sound of t; as, 
Thorildy Boe' thins, Luther (but observe that lutersk and In- 
teract are spelled with t). 



54 CONSONANTS § 55 

(2) Concerning the pronunciation cf rt, see §36, 3. 
Ex.: hjarta heart, fort fast, stort (from stor large), 
gjort (from gbra to do), fartyg vessel, borta away, 
vackert (n. of vacker pretty). 

(3) Tj has approximately the same sound as 
English "ch'\ Ex.: tjugu twenty, tjdna to serve, 
tjock thick, tjuv thief. 

(4) Ti, followed by a vowel, has three sounds: 

(a) When followed by and preceded by any 
consonant except r, ti has the sound of sj. Ex.: 
lektidn lesson, auktio'n auction, direktio'n direction, 
subskriptio'n subscription . 

(b) When followed by and preceded by a vowel 
or r, ti has the sound of t-\-sj. Ex.: ?iatio f ?i nation, 
statidn station, motio'n exercise, portion portion. 
In a number of words either tsj or sj is used; as, 
rekommendatid n recommendation, emigratidn emi- 
gration, additidn addition, revolution revolution. 

(c) When followed by a or e, ti has the sound 
of tsi. Ex.: initiati'v initiative, initia'l initial, pro- 
feti'a prophesy, justif ieminister minister of justice. — 
Aktie share, is usually pronounced aksie; paticri t 
patient, and licentia't licentiate, may be pronounced 
pasie?i r t, lisensia't, or regularly. 

Note. — The proper name Fritiof is pronounced fritjof. 

V. 

55. V has the sound of English v. Ex.: vi we, 
veta to know, svag weak, kvist twig, tvd two, dvarg 
dwarf, tolv twelve. 

Note. — Concerning the assimilation of v before t and s , 
see § 38. 



§ 5 6 CONSONANTS 55 



w. 



56. W, which occurs only in a few proper names, 
and in words derived from these, has the sound of 
v. Ex.: Walli'n, Wi r angd, Schweiz Switzerland, 
schweizeri* cafe. 



57- (i) A" usually has the sound of long k + s. 
Ex.: sex six, lax salmon, oxe ox, vaxa to grow. 

Note. — Care should be taken not to give x the sound of 
"gz" (as frequently in English when preceding the main 
stress), for instance, in exa'me?i examination, exak't exact. 

(2) Initial x has the sound of ks or s. Ex.: xy- 
logra'f xylographer, Xenofon, Xantip'pa ) Xerxes. 

(3) Xi (xj) has the sound of k -f- sj. Ex.: re- 
flexion reflection, annexio'n annexation, Vaxjb. 

z. 

58. (1) Z, which is of infrequent occurrence, has 
the sound of Swedish s. Ex. : zige'nare gipsy, zink 
zinc, zon zone, zoologi' zoology, Afze'lius, Berze'lius, 
Creutz, Franzen. 

(2) Z has the sound of ts in Schweiz Switzerland, 
and in words derived from this. 

59. SUMMARIES RELATING TO CONSONANTS: 

(1) The distinction between hard and soft vowels 
is of importance in connection with the pronuncia 
tion of g, k y sk, and, to a limited extent, c. 

(2) The combinations gj, kj\ skj have the same 
sound as g } k, sk followed by front vowels. 

(3) Initial d, /i, /, and g are silent when followed 
by J. 



56 CONSONANTS § 59 

(4) G, b, d, v usually become k, p, /,/ when fol- 
lowed by / or s. 

(5) Rd, rt, H, rn, rs have each a single sound, 
that of the supradentals; 110 r is heard. 

(6) Swedish consonants that have sounds differ- 
ing materially from the corresponding English 
sounds are: r, sj } the dentals (d, t, I, n, s), and the 
supradentals. 

(7) The following combinations always have the 
sound of sj: sj, skj , stj, sch, si, ssi, ch (practically 
always); the following letters and combinations 
sometimes have the sound of sj: sk, g (ge) , /, sc, ti. 
— Of the letters and combinations representing the 
.s/'-sound, only sj, skj, stj, sk are used in words of 
native origin; sc/i, ch, g (ge),j, sc, si, ssi, ti occur 
only in words of foreign origin. 

(8) The following always denote s: s, 2 (almost 
always), x (including k; almost always); the fol- 
lowing sometimes denote s: c, sc, x (rarely), t (in 
the combination ti, rarely). 

(9) The following always denote the //'-sound: tj y 
kj; the following sometimes denotes tj: k. 

(10) The following always denotes the ^-sound: 
ng (practically always); the following sometimes: 
g, »- 

(11) The following always denote the Swedish 
/-sound: initial dj, hj , Ij, gj; the following sometimes 

do:/ (usually), g. 

(12) The following always denotes the >£-sound: 
q; the following sometimes: k, c, ch (rarely). — 
I*ong k is represented by ck, ch (in ocli). 



§-6o UNIFORMITY OF PRONUNCIATION 57 

(13) The following always denote the z^-sound: 

v, w. 

UNIFORMITY OF PRONUNCIATION. 

GO. There are in Sweden a large number of dia- 
lects, even the people of adjoining parishes often 
differing noticeably in their speech. The small 
dialect-divisions group themselves naturally into 
larger groups, and so it happens that the language of 
Southern and Western Sweden shows certain ten- 
dencies of pronunciation differing from the language 
as spoken in Central and Northern Sweden. 

The ideal of good uniform Swedish is called "riks- 
sprak' ' . As far as the written language is concerned, 
the "rikssprak" is in all essentials a reality. In 
the spoken language there is, particularly in re- 
cent years, a growing tendency tow T ard uniformity, 
most of all, of course, in the cities; but even the 
cultured to a large extent speak a form of Swedish 
that in some degree shows traces of their own par- 
ticular (larger) dialect-group. 

As each of the large divisions mentioned repre- 
sents a large part of the total population, it is in 
some cases difficult to decide which of two varying 
pronunciations should be said to belong to the "riks- 
sprak". 

It is clear, then, that there is no absolutely rigid 
norm of correct spoken Swedish. While the uni- 
formity is great enough, it is not unnecessarily 
pressed, leaving room for a sufficient amount of indi- 
viduality. Indeed, with regard to a number of mat- 



58 UNIFORMITY OF PRONUNCIATION § 6 1 

ters, two (sometimes more) different pronunciations 
are recognized as equally good, only as being char- 
acteristic of different sections of the country. Even 
in the case of the individual sounds there is in a 
number of instances considerable freedom of choice 
between two differing pronunciations, the free- 
dom of choice varying somewhat with the dif- 
ferent sounds in question. Here follows an account 
of the most important sounds of this kind, in vary- 
ing degree considered dialectic, though not in all 
cases considered dialectic by all scholars, and to a 
considerable extent (varying somewhat with the dif- 
ferent sounds) employed by educated Swedes. 

61. A AND O BEFORE R. In the greater part of 
Sweden the sounds of a (written also e) and b } both 
long and short, become more open when followed 
by r; but before r standing alone these open sounds 
are less widespread than before r followed by a con- 
sonant. This open sound of a lies midway between 
the "e" of "met" and the "a" of "mat". The 
open sound of b may be produced by placing the 
tongue in position for the open sound of a, and 
rounding the lips (with moderate protrusion) so 
that the opening is large. Ex.: jam iron, svard 
sword, parla pearl, varre worse, hjdrta heart, vark 
pain, vers verse, herre gentleman, verk work, Sverge 
Sweden, perso'n person, brn eagle, Ibrdag Saturday, 
art herb, dorr door, bbrja to begin, fbrst first, mbrk 
dark. 

62. E AND -4. In large parts of Central and North- 
ern Sweden, e (the sound of § 20, 1 and 3), both 
long and short, has changed into a sound lying be- 



§ 63 UNIFORMITY OF PRONUNCIATION 59 

tween Swedish e and a, and in considerable parts 
of this general region, a (both long and short) has 
changed into this same intermediate sound. In some 
places, notably in Stockholm, both these changes 
have taken place; there no distinction is made be- 
tween the sound of e and of a, but each is pro- 
nounced with a sound lying between both. 

63. R. In Southern Sweden, r is pronounced with 
articulation far back in the mouth, either as a spi- 
rant produced between the back portion of the tongue 
and the soft palate, or, a trifle farther back pro- 
duced through the vibration of the uvula between 
the tongue and the palate. Both these varieties of 
back r are usually employed by one and the same 
individual, the uvular r representing more careful 
and distinct speech than the spirant. 

In the more northerly portion of Southern Swe- 
den both the back and the front r (that of §36, 1) 
are employed by the same individual, the back r 
being used only initially, and, when long, between 
vowels and finally (as in rod red, surr buzz, surra 
to buzz). In words where a second r occurs, but 
in a different position from those mentioned, both 
r-sounds are in this case employed in the same word. 

In that part of Southern Sweden where the back 
r is used exclusively, there are no supradentals; 
here back r is pronounced, followed by the dentals. 

64. Tj. In place of the affricate (= stop followed 
by the corresponding spirant) ^'-sound, the spi- 
rant alone is employed in a large part of Central 
Sweden and in the northerly portion of Southern 
Sweden, the stop being omitted. Medially before a 



60 UNIFORMITY OF PRONUNCIATION § 65 

Stressed vowel (as in arki'v archives, betjan't ser- 
vant) the spirant is used even by some who in 
other cases employ the affricate. 

Normally the spirant mentioned, both as contained 
in the affricate and as pronounced alone, is one 
lying a little more forward than German "ch" in 
"ich". In some parts of Sweden, however, the spi- 
rant used is one lying between the sounds of "ch M 
in German "ich" and "Nachte". 

65. Sf. In place of the normal ^'-sound, Southern 
Sweden employs one that reminds much of the 
sound we in English represent by "wh" (when this 
is not pronounced like "w"), but in producing the 
Swedish sound the distance between the tongue and 
the palate is smaller, and the opening of the lips 
larger. The Swedish sound is articulated just a 
little forward of the "ch" in German "ach'\ and 
has more labialization than this. 

66. L. In most of the dialects of Central and 
Northern Sweden a peculiar /-sound (really rather 
an r-sound) is employed, but not in all positions of 
the word. The sound in question is produced by 
raising the tip of the tongue up toward the palate 
and turning it backward, without touching any- 
where (about as in the case of our American cacu- 
minal "r", but with more tenseness of the tongue); 
then the tongue is flapped forward into its normal 
position in the mouth, or into the position of the 
following sound if there is one, the tip usually 
to'uching the rim of the palatal arch in passing. 
Ex.: tal speech, gul yellow, valja to choose, folk 
people, bid blue, bubbla bubble, skramla to rattle. 



§■ 6j- ALPHABET, ORTHOGRAPHY 6 1 

This /, which is called cacuminal /, is in some 
parts of Sweden usually employed also in place of 
the supradental d (written rd)\ as, bord table, hard 
hard, garde field. But it is used less often in the 
case of inflectional forms, such as gjorde, gjord 
(from gbra to do). 

NAMES OF THE LETTERS OF THE 
ALPHABET. 

67. The names of the letters of the alphabet are: 
a, be, se, de, e, dff, ge, ha, i, ji (or jodd) , kd, all, 
amm, ami, o, pe, kit, arr, ass, te, u, ve, ve (= w) y 
aks, y, sata, a, a, b. 

Note. — i. The sounds represented by the combinations 
■?/> tj, ng are called sje-ljudet, tje-ljudet, and ang-ljudet, re- 
spectively. The supradentals are called supradenta' It de, etc. 
2. The vowels in the vowel-names are long (because final) 
and are pronounced with the vowel-quality belonging to the 
long sound in each case; e and o have their normal long 
quality, that described in § 20, 1, and § 22, 1. Also the 
consonant-names are pronounced like real Swedish words; 
the quality of the long e is the same as in the vowel-names; 
the o in jodd is that of short d. The g of ge usually has 
the sound of "g" in "go." 

ORTHOGRAPHY. 

68. Swedish orthography, while far from perfect, 
is not nearly so confusing as English orthography. 
On the whole, Swedish words are pronounced as 
they are spelled. There are very few silent letters. 

In the course of centuries the pronunciation of 
Swedish has changed a good deal. It would have. 



62 ORTHOGRAPHY § 68 

been only proper for the orthography to have been 
changed as the pronunciation changed. Though the 
Swedish orthography has been improved from time 
to time, the changes have by no means kept pace 
with the changing pronunciation. Another very 
disturbing element is the borrowing of words from 
other languages; in these, corresponding sounds are 
in very many cases represented by letters and com- 
binations different from those that Swedish would 
use for those sounds, but the foreign spelling is 
usually retained in Swedish. 

In recent years there have been several important 
changes in orthography, the latest being that of 
April 7, 1906. The literature can only slowly fol- 
low these changes. Comparatively few of the Swed- 
ish books can be printed anew whenever a change 
is officially adopted, and while most new books that 
appear, are printed with the latest spelling, yet par- 
ticularly newspapers and periodicals, for commercial 
reasons, generally retain the older form of ortho- 
graphy until the new one is pretty well established 
among all classes. 

The student must accordingly be prepared to meet 
several stages of orthography in his reading. Even 
if he were to choose only books with the newest 
spelling, an acquaintance with the older forms of 
orthography is necessary on account of the diction- 
aries. There is at the present time (August, 1914) 
no Swedish-English or Swedish-Swedish dictionary 
conforming with the changes adopted in 1906, while 
some of the dictionaries in use have a form of or- 
thography that is still older. 



§'68 ORTHOGRAPHY 63 

The orthography used for a number of years 
prior to 1906 (employed in Wenstrorn-Harlock's 
Swedish-English dictionary) differs from the present 
orthography (employed in this book and in my 
"Swedish Grammar") in the following particulars: 
the z/-sound is there very often represented by ffv y 
or hv; the sound of ti and t is very often written dt. 
In detail: 

(1) The orthography superceded in 1906 employs: 
( a ) f (p r on. v i and now 7 written v) in native w T ords 
finally and when followed by a consonant; as, bref 
(now brev) letter, kalf (now kalv) calf, hafre (now 
havre) oats, silfret (now 7 silvret) silver, (b) fv 
(pron. v, and now written v) medially when fol- 
lowed by a vowel; as, bref vet (now brevet) the 
letter, kalfven (now kalveii) the calf, silfver (now 
silver) silver, Jwfva (now hava) to have. 

(2) At the beginning of some twenty-five w T ords, 
some of these being of very frequent occurrence, it 
employes a silent h before v; as, hvad (now vad) 
what, hvem (now vent) who, hvarje (now varje) 
every, hviska (now viska) to whisper, hvit (now 
vit) w r hite. 

(3) It employs dt (pron. it or /) finally and 
(less often) medially in certain cases where it, t is 
now used. Except for a few individual words, it 
is chiefly a question of cases where the neuter end- 
ing t has been added to words and forms ending in 
d t dd (which, by assimilation, have become voiceless, 
i. e., t, //); as, godt (now gott; from god good), 
bcbod't (now bebot't; from bebod'd inhabited), viildt 
(now milt; from mild mild), byggdt (now byggt; from 



64 ORTHOGRAPHY § 68 

byggd, past part, of bygga to build), ledt (now lett; 
from leddy past part, of leda to lead), sdndt (now 
saw// from sandy past part, of s'dnda to send), a/- 
s/eaa^ (now dlskat; from alskad, past part, of #&£# 
to love), handte'ra (now hante'ra) to handle, landt- 
bnik (now lantbruk) farming, gladtig (now gldttzg) 
cheerful. 

A form of orthography in use prior to that just 
described (employed in Bjorkman's and in Oman's 
Swedish-English dictionaries) differs from the pres- 
ent orthography chiefly in the following additional 
particulars: 

(i) It has e (pron. a ) in many instances where 
the later forms have a; as , p res t {now pr list) clergy- 
man, sjette (now sjdtte) sixth. The present form of 
orthography still has e (= a) in many words; see 

§ 28. 

(2) In some cases, similarly, it has (pron. a) 
for the later a; as, fog el (now fdgel) bird. The 
present form of orthography still has (= a) in 
many words; see § 28. 

(3) It has qv for the later kv; as, qvall (now 
kvall) evening. 

(4) It has gt (pron. kt y by assimilation) for the 
later kt; as, slagt (now sliikf) family, vigt (now 
vikt) weight, flygt (now fly kf) flight, ansigte (now 
ansikte') face. But where the neuter ending t is 
added to a word ending in g, and in a few other 
cases, the spelling gt is still used; note the cases 
mentioned in § 38, particularly those in the note. 



